


The Fall Of Icarus (And Other Heroes)

by im_pie_la



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: And then Blood of Olympus, Annabeth doesn't make it, Dark!Percy, F/M, I'm Sorry, Set during Mark Of Athena
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-09
Updated: 2018-07-09
Packaged: 2019-06-07 22:25:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15229257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/im_pie_la/pseuds/im_pie_la
Summary: Percy did not catch Annabeth before she fell.He did not fall with her.He didn't- couldn't- save her.But maybe he can avenge her?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is a edited upload of a story from fanfiction.net on my account there (Under the author Fezzes At 221B and the name Falling)   
> Please leave a kudos and a comment if you enjoy!  
> This is set just during MoA, and jumps to BoO.   
> (Also please excuse the formatting especially if it's in a massive block, it just won't work!!)

Annabeth still had euphoria coursing through her as she realised properly that she was free from Arachne’s grip. She had succeeded. She had succeeded. 

Nico had just reached the ladder when a sharp pain shot up Annabeth's bad leg. She gasped, stumbling back a few paces. 

"What is it?" Percy asked, his blue eyes were wide and her heart hurt as she saw how scared he was for her. 

She tried to stagger towards the ladder, towards her Percy.

Why was she moving backwards instead? Sharp dread suddenly seeped down her spine like hot wax, just before her legs were swept out from under her. She fell on her face, her already bruised arms getting scraped again. 

"Her ankle!" Hazel shouted from the ladder. "Cut it, Percy! Cut it!"

Annabeth's mind was hazy with pain and she could barely make out Hazel’s voice over the rushing in her ears. 

It seemed Percy didn't understand what Hazel meant either. Then something yanked Annabeth backwards again. She was being dragged towards the pit. 

Her hands scrabbled at the sandy ground as Percy lunged after her. He missed, skidding across the floor. Annabeth sobbed as she was pulled over the edge of the chasm. 

Pain was washing her vision red and she clawed desperately at the sides of the chasm, kicking with her legs helplessly. 

Somehow, her hand caught onto a ledge, hardly the size of a bookshelf. Maybe the gods were finally smiling on her.

Small pebbles rained down on her as she squinted up at the sunlight and the face of Percy leaning over the edge.

"ANNABETH!" He roared down the chasm, the ledge she had landed on was further than she could climb with a gummy leg and her arms were tiring. She was so, so tired. 

"I'll close the doors!" she shouted up at him with the last of her strength. The combined force of Arachne falling and the tug on her ankle making it harder and harder to hold on.  
"No, Annabeth, wait! We'll get down to you-"

"I'm sorry, Percy." she whispered, her voice cracking.

Her hand unclenched, and she gave into the pull of the Underworld. She reached up for the last patch of blue sky and for Percy.   
She fell. 

"No, Annabeth!" Percy screamed, pushing himself up from where he had been flat out on the floor, reaching hopelessly over the edge, ready to leap into the chasm after Annabeth.

Hazel lunged from the ladder, landing next to Percy and latched onto his arm, holding his back from jumping in. Nico hobbled over, grabbing Percy's other arm. His eyes were full of tears for losing Annabeth but her mouth was set. He didn’t want to lose another friend today. 

"No!" Percy writhed in their grip like some wild creature, stumbling towards the gaping hole in the floor and peering over.

"Frank! Jason!" Hazel yelled, eyes glimmering with tears.

Frank circled down, morphing into human as he landed; Jason zipped down with wide eyes.

Piper flung herself down the ladder. "What-?" she said, surveying the chaos. Then it dawned on her and her hand shot to her mouth.

"Frank, Jason, fly him up." Hazel was struggling to speak past the lump in her throat, she hadn't known Annabeth very well, but it hurt her to see Percy so upset.

Frank grabbed Percy around the waist and turned into a dragon, Jason flew up with him holding Percy's arms as he continued to flail.

When they landed on the ship, having gone excruciatingly slowly, trying to keep their grip on the distraught boy, Piper and Leo were already there, Hazel pulling herself over the rail, Nico looking up at them from behind Hazel.

Percy stumbled to the rail, looking desperately over the side as Leo got the ship in the air, the Athena Parthenos secured.

He sank to his knees, tears streaming down his cheeks. Pipes, sinks, toilets, taps, showers, anything with water in exploded, raining metal and droplets on the small huddle of teenagers.

Below them fountains spurted into the air, rivers burst their banks and streets flooded. People poured out into the streets in chaos and confusion, too busy trying to save shoes and tables from the outside cafes to look up at the ship and it's grieving passengers.


	2. Chapter 2

Nine days later, Percy was slumped at one of the tables, sitting across from Nico and Hazel. He had dark circles under his eyes, and had eaten the barest minimum. He had hardly spoken to anyone, but had taken to following Nico like another shadow, desperate for reassurance that Annabeth was still alive. 

Piper watched him from the doorway to the mess hall, Jason hovering next to her, their hands intertwined. Coach was leaning against the wall opposite to them, lips pressed tight together.

 

Annabeth falling into Tartarus had hit them all hard, but not as hard as it had to Percy.

Piper had lost her best friend, aside from Leo and Jason. Leo had disappeared into the engine room, emerging only for food, and even then he sometimes sent Buford out for it.

They had never seen Percy like this: so hysterical and fragile.

Suddenly Nico gave a small gasp and Percy's eyes snapped up to him, hope and resignation shining in their depths.

Hazel glanced at Nico who looked back at her, his dark eyes broken and pained. Hazel understood immediately and covered her mouth with her hand, fresh tears in her amber eyes.

"Nico." Percy's voice was cracked and rusty from disuse. He was sitting horribly still, so unlike his usual fidgeting. He knew what had happened but he hoped against hope, prayed to every god who had used them that his Annabeth had made it. 

Nico shook his head. "No." He whispered, voice broken. 

Frank came forward and hugged Hazel, who turned her head and cried into his chest. 

Piper felt Jason's arms come around her waist, and she dropped her head in defeat, tears dripping down her cheeks. She had wished that Annabeth had made it- she had survived so much, from just being a normal demigod to facing down Arachne. But Tartarus was too much, even for her strong spirit. Wetness spreading on her shoulder told her Jason was crying too.

Through her tears, she heard rustling and clunking behind her. When she turned her head, Leo was standing there, Buford by his side.

Leo had tear streaks down his soot and grease-stained cheeks. When he looked at Piper and Jason, then at everyone inside the room, another tear slipped down.

Jason held out an arm, silently inviting Leo to join the hug and Leo half-stumbled over to them, his right hand brushing against Buford's top, trying to keep himself balanced.

He leaned against them, looking back at Hazel who was gazing at them blankly from across the room.

"Perce." Nico's quiet voice sounded deafening in the shocked silence of the room.

They had all known Annabeth had a tiny chance of survival, but she had done so well in her own quest, they had clung on to a shard of hope.

"No." growled Percy, standing up, flinging his chair back, sending it skittering across the floor.

Outside of the room, pipes exploded again, drawing an exhausted sob out of Leo who had spent ages and used countless supplies to fix them after the events over a week ago.

Piper could hear the crashing of waves below them and the ship surged in the water. She was flung against the doorway as they pounded into the side of the Argo II.

Leo cast an apologetic look towards Percy who was standing in the middle of the room, fists clenched at his sides, before turning and tiredly loping down the corridor in an attempt to get the ship stable.

Piper pulled Jason's arms off her, giving his hands a regretful squeeze, and turned to dash down the hall after Leo.

Just as she turned to leave, a quiet voice speak up from inside the room.

"I will make her pay."


	3. Falling In Reverse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is now set during the Battle with Gaia in Blood of Olympus.

"Percy!" Leo yelled as he half-stood up in the stirrups he'd made on Festus.

The cestial dragon was intact again, fire billowing from his bronze jaws, as he swept his massive head from side to side. Gaia was screeching between his claws, unable to dissolve to safety from the dragon’s Celestial Bronze claws.

The son of the sea god looked up, from where he was standing in the middle of the battlefield. A crowd of monsters were around him, seemingly all too scared to attack first. 

He caught Leo's eye and nodded grimly, before leaping forward and slicing through three of the dracnae ruthlessly. This spurred the others into battle and their dying cries were audible from where Leo surveyed the battle.

He saw Piper, standing back to back with Jason. They hadn’t left each other’s side since… Annabeth. 

Leo smirked, the monsters didn't stand a chance.

When he looked back at Percy, he seemed to have vanquished his foes, and was running towards the lake, slicing at monsters that got in his way. Leo had always thought Percy was a little scary but here in battle, he was terrifying. His blade scythed through the monsters in a careless way, showing no mercy. 

Leo directed Festus towards where Percy was headed, before leaning dangerously over his side to see if the metal beast had dropped the goddess, who was little more than a cloud of angry dust.

As he confirmed the enemy was in his (well, Festus') grasp, he noted Hazel seemed to be struggling, down on the ground. He dropped a few of his favourite grenades (some had Greek fire, some had the contents of sceptic tanks, it was a lucky dip really) over the side and watched as the short troll-like creature burnt.   
Hazel held a thumb-up to him, hair bouncing all over the place. He grinned down, and sat properly in the chair he'd specially made, hoping that slight jerk just then was not it coming loose, but just a bit of turbulence.

Over the past week or so, he had been struggling to keep his mind away from Annabeth. She was the only person on the ship that understood his babble about machines properly and helped him on it, Piper and Jason tried, but they couldn't do much else than sit there and nod encouragingly.

He had buried his thoughts with work, Percy taking no trouble in providing lots for Leo. He would be woken up by Percy's anguished screams down the hall and the popping of bolts in the pipes a few meters away from where he'd collapsed by his work bench.

But now, they had Gaia, and they would defeat her. And no one would die. None of his friends. 

Leo was shaken out of his reverie by Jason, clutching Piper, flying up beside him, with a twisted smile on his face.

"You ready for the main event?" Leo gave his best friend’s a smile that was more of a grimace, which was returned by even sadder teeth-baring.

Jason placed Piper just behind Leo and she locked her arms around his waist. Nodding once at Leo, both of them knowing full well that this was the make-or-break deciding factor. They would win, or crash to the ground in a flaming ball of nope.

Jason clapped his arms to his sides and plummeted through the air, hand gripping his sword hilt.

The corners of Leo's mouth turned down and he steered Festus down after Jason.

He felt Piper's chin rest on his shoulder and he half-turned his head to acknowledge her.

"We're going to do it. For her. Percy won't let Gaia get away with it." She whispered, and Leo couldn't hear any charmspeak in her voice. He agreed with her wholly, Percy was going to rip the goddess apart, and worst-case scenario they would have to pull him off him, and hold him back from going after Hera, who had started this all. 

If Leo really thought about, he wouldn’t mind going after Hera himself. 

"Ready?" Jason roared, hovering just above the lake, looking between Percy, rising up to meet them on a wave of water, and Leo who gave him a thumbs-up, without humour in his face.

"GO!" Percy yelled, and wow, it'd been a while since Leo had heard him speak, not counting the screams that echoed hauntingly on the Argo II at night.

Leo stared hard at Piper, as he got out of his seat. "Stay here. Jason will not forgive me if you get hurt."

Piper nodded, her face pale and Leo slung himself off the side of the great metal dragon, a wire of Imperial Gold around his waist in a harness, the other end secured to the dragon's head.

Both hands free, he sent wave after wave of fire at the cloud-of-dirt goddess. Leo nodded to himself, that pretty much summed up her personality. Dirt.

"THIS IS FOR MY MOTHER, ESPERANZA VALDEZ!" Leo roared and Festus clacked in agreement, bending his great head to blaze Gaia.

Percy let out a hoarse yell and sent half of the lake crashing into Gaia, Festus whirred as he rocked from the force and Leo looked up, hoping his dragon and Piper were okay. Thankfully neither seemed too hurt and Leo returned his full attention to killing the goddess. 

His ears were ringing with a loud screaming and it took him a couple of seconds to realise where it was coming from, even though he was causing it. 

He didn't think that Gaia would scream, and it gave him a grim satisfaction.

Percy was just audible over it, but his words were so jumbled, Leo could hardly tell what he was yelling at her. But she quietened for a split second, weakened by an arc of lightening and Leo caught the end of his sentence; a grief-stricken howl.

"I loved her! How could you? Why?"

Leo felt a lump rise in his throat and glancing over to the other side of Festus, he could see Jason with tears streaking down his face.

With another cry, Percy clenched his fists, and the water tendrils froze where they were, sticking through the goddess. Slowly, he pulled his hands apart, and the dust separated with a shriek.

Jason turned his attention to electrocuting the two groups. Leo burnt one at a time, trying to avoid Festus.

"I hate you!" Percy's wails were rising in hysterics and grief. Leo blinked back tears and with the rise of his emotions, his hands blazed and glowing specks of fiery mud fell to the lake, little plumes of smoke rising.

"So tired," Piper called from high above Leo. The goddess shifted into a vaguely human form, her misshapen head lifting to look at Piper.

"So much sadness and heartbreak... Even for a goddess..." she continued and Gaia's head dropped in almost defeat. Leo felt his heart rise, one elbow locked around the wire.

Then a stray tendril of water shot towards him, one of many that were blasting out from Percy's hands, and almost severed the wire, sending Leo swinging.

"Perce!" he yelled, looking over in alarm at the son of Poseidon, who had his eyes firmly closed, mouth moving, uttering words that Leo couldn't hear.  
The son of Poseidon had lost control. Or he didn’t care about keeping his control.

Jason looked over at Leo, seeing Percy as well. "What-" Leo just about made out, before the howling winds whipped his words away.

Jason nodded up at Piper, who was valiantly shouting to Gaia, then to Leo, checking he understood what he was going to do before shooting up through the air like a bullet.

Leo had understood of course, and carried on being a Molotov cocktail by swinging ever closer (Percy hitting him had given him an idea, despite how even more dangerous it was) to Gaia and burning swathes of her at a time.

Percy hadn't seemed to notice Jason leaving, as the winds were still in full force, even as Jason descended to the ground with Piper, who was still pleading with Gaia. The Earth Mother was more sluggish, particles of dust only darting through the air rather than slicing, meaning she was growing more and more solid in Festus’ giant talons. 

"Annabeth!" Percy howled one last time, and Leo could hear him clearly, the boy's anger and grief louder than even the Goddess' screeches.

Then, all of the lake rose up and crashed into Gaia, sending Festus flying through the air and Leo rocking wildly. But the last beating had taken its toll on the struggling dragon, even though the brunt of the force was directed at Gaia. 

The Imperial Gold wire slid from around Festus' neck and Leo was tumbling through the clouds.

Festus was falling with Leo too, fifty tons of circuitry and metal flapping uselessly. Leo realised three things just before he hit the ground:  
Festus was going to take forever to fix, even if he did survive.  
This was going to hurt.  
Gaia was missing from the dragon's claws.  
Leo clenched his eyes, the sounds of screaming campers audible and the clacking of Festus in Morse code (translated into: 'My wings, my wings. Ow, ow, ow,') from below him.

Just before he crunched to the ground, there was a rush of water and suddenly he was enveloped in water; silvery bubbles burst from his shocked mouth and floated up to the light.

Leo clamped his mouth shut before he swallowed any (more) water and suffocated. 

There was only one thought in his mind as he swam to the surface. 

Well two.

What had happened to Gaia? If Percy let her get away... He didn't finish that thought.

And, 'Oh the gods, I hope Festus isn't in here'


End file.
